


It's No Longer About Kevin

by messylochness



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, Mentions of suicide (not between the main character), Slow Burn, broken home, mentions of homophobic (just a tiny bit)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28729059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/messylochness/pseuds/messylochness
Summary: The suicide of a student shocks and rocks an all-boys elite private boarding school, affecting its reputation. This pushed the school administration to start a student partner program to keep all the students monitored by their peers. Jongin Kim and Kyungsoo Do, the only two Koreans in the school were partnered up and soon find themselves as roommates. Through the program and spending time together, they try to investigate the suicide on their own and piece together the real reason for their schoolmate's death, only to realize that a student's death may not be the worst thing on campus. Along the way, they discover each other's own secrets and learn what first love feels like.
Relationships: Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	It's No Longer About Kevin

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This work is supposed to be a submission for a fic fest, but I couldn't finish it on time, therefore I have to drop out of the fest, sadly. I would like to apologize to the prompter for taking this prompt outside of the fest and post it as a regular story. I hope this note reaches you well, and I hope you like it. I also want to thank my girls: Nini, Simone, Sugary and Arya for their support. This work is solely dedicated to you.

Kyungsoo woke up with cold sweats upon his forehead and shivers along his spine. He was having a nightmare, the same old one that keeps repeating itself for the last three months since the day he found Kevin Santiago dead, the lacrosse captain whose room was just in the round corners of the sophomore dorm's wing.

The suicide happened on the weekend, the lazy Saturday morning when all of the boys would slowly march to their own extra activities or go to the church that was located right in the middle of their school facility. Kyungsoo was just going to freshen up at the public bathroom on his floor before he went to the choir meetings when he passed Kevin's room. He occupied the only single room on this floor, and the lack of roommate made him usually keep his door closed.

Kevin might have looked like an introverted person and rarely interacted with other boys, but he seemed to have no problem in socializing while they were on the field. Kyungsoo, out of all the people in this school, could totally understand his struggle. Living in an all-boys dorm could be very cacophonous and messy, especially around the exams week, and personal space was a luxury for them. That was probably why they got along pretty well since Kevin didn't seem to have someone he could call a close friend at school. They shared several classes in their freshman year, even paired for English literature assignments, but nothing personal evolved in their friendship outside of their joined study session and occasionally heated discussion.

On that unfortunate morning, the door to his room was slightly ajar. Kyungsoo might have just shook it off like it was nothing, or assumed that Kevin had forgotten to lock his door before going to the field, if only he hadn't caught an eerie shadow cast by the morning sunlight from the inside. Kyungsoo looked around the hallway, most students must have been out of their room, as he suddenly realized that his surroundings were exceptionally silent. 

" _Kevin_ ?" Kyungsoo knocked at the door. There was no answer. He tried again, " _Are you there? Can I come in_?"

He fixed his horn-rimmed glasses at the bridge of his nose before slowly pushing the door open when he heard no answer. Kyungsoo widened his eyes, unconsciously dropping his toiletries bag when he saw the lifeless figure dangling from the tall window near the ceiling. He was frozen, his throat close-fitted, while his entire body was trembling hard. Suddenly his legs gave away, he dropped on his bottom and scrambled backward in terror.

" _No, no, Kevin, no_." Kyungsoo made a low whimper voice. He finally found his ability to speak, and out loud he screamed. " _Help, oh God. Please help us. Help. HELP_!"

Kyungsoo wiped perspiration from his forehead and attempted to calm himself several minutes after his unpleasant wake up. He was panting hard as if he had just run five laps of the baseball field under Mr. Wilson's hawk-eyed supervision. There was a light snore heard from the bed on the other side of the room. Matteo's snore used to annoy him when he had just gotten into the school a couple of years ago, but he felt relieved recently to know that he was not alone. It was only three in the morning, but Kyungsoo was too scared to go back to sleep. He slipped out of his bed while dragging his thick comforter with him. He opened the door as slow as possible to not wake his roommate—he knew how pissed Matteo could be every time he was woken up by his own alarm in the morning—then slipped outside.

Kyungsoo had no idea why he decided to leave his room at these mere hours of the morning when he could have spent his time catching up with his reading or working on school assignments due tomorrow, even though he could not bring himself to start working on it. He could cram it this morning before the first period, though. He had a class later at half-past seven, he still had plenty of spare time, after all, if he returned to his room in a couple of hours.

He stood frozen in front of his door when he saw shadows lurking at the farthest room. The hallway was pitch black, only lit by a couple of dimmed downlights, but he could still clearly see some movements over there. It was already emptied now that Kevin's parents had taken all his belongings after the homicide units finished their investigation, but he still referred to the only single room at this wing as Kevin's nonetheless. He tip-toed towards a tall figure clad in all black who tried to pick the lock with a modified paperclip.

"What are you doing?" Kyungsoo asked when he stood behind the culprit. The man whipped his head too fast, they almost bumped their foreheads, before he covered Kyungsoo's mouth with his palm.

"Don't scream," he whispered. "Please, I'm not up to anything bad. Believe me, let me explain." Kyungsoo nodded in agreement, the taller figure released his grip from the lower part of his face. "Damn, you really have such a small face, lad," he mumbled.

Kyungsoo could not recognize who the boy was, for he spoke in the perfect British accent like most native students in Louise Fraser School for Boys. As one of the very few foreign students in this place, he was the one with the _accent_ here. The stranger helped retrieve Kyungsoo's fallen quilt made by his grandmother who lives in Gyeonggi before sending him aboard, draped it around his shoulders, and tucked it tight around his shoulders. He petted the crown of Kyungsoo's head since he was almost a head taller than him in a comforting way when he's done. 

"Who are you? And what are you going to do in Kevin's old room?" He asked the stranger. Now that he could see him up close, he realized that his face was not familiar. He could be a freshman or a senior, Kyungsoo only recognized the faces of his classmates, and this boy was definitely not one of them. 

"Name is Kai." He offered his hand, but Kyungsoo decided not to take it until he got the explanation he deserved. "Senior year, leader of the Sherlock club, here to investigate Kevin Santiago's suicide case."

"Are you kidding me?" Kyungsoo raised his tone a couple of notes higher, but Kai once again covered his mouth to keep him silent.

"Please, keep it low, will you?"

"That's discourteous!" Kyungsoo kept his voice low while trying to argue with this senior. "And I don't think it's necessary to meddle with this, since the police have finished their investigation and the case is already solved."

"Yeah, wait until I show you our clues—"

"Wait." Kyungsoo put his palms open in front of his chest. "Stop right there Detective, this is a real death we're talking about, and it's not a game for you to play. This is Edinburgh, not Baker Street 221B, anyway. Go investigate the fat stray tabby cat who usually lurks near the chemistry lab that went missing a couple of weeks ago instead."

Kai chuckled, "Her name is Moria, she's not just a fat cat. She's pregnant and just went into labor. Her five kittens just opened their eyes yesterday, all of them are cute and healthy. I can wait to be able to play with them, if Moria allows me."

Kyungsoo widened his eyes in disbelief, "Wait, what?"

"Do you want me to show you the shelter that I made for her?" Kai raised his eyebrows teasingly.

"No, it's not about the shelter," Kyungsoo shook his head, "but you named her after The Hobbit's, for someone who is addicted to Sherlock Holmes." He might not be a big fan of both books series, but he did not need to be a fan to understand the reference. 

"I didn't, it was written in her collar." Kai's smile was blinding even when their surroundings were dark. "Maybe her previous owner was The Hobbit's fans or else. If it was up to me, I would call her Irene instead."

Kyungsoo gulped nervously. Kai was indeed addicted to _every_ mystery around them and he could see now why he was very keen to investigate Kevin's case. And he actually has solved a case before, so he's apparently quite good at this. 

"Well, whatever floats your boat, I don't want to get involved with it." He turned his back and took a few steps before returning to the boy once again. "And don't you ever try to mess with his things, you might upset the spirit."

"Pardon me," Kai could not contain his laughter when he heard his last word. "Are you five?"

"No, but where I am from, we believe in ghosts and spirits," Kyungsoo shrugged while returning to his room with furious strides. He wished Kai would stop doing that and they would never meet again.

***

"Have you heard about the new program?" Willis Oh slid his food tray in Kyungsoo's table on their lunch break, then he took place after him.

Unlike Kyungsoo who was born and raised in South Korea before his father decided to send him aboard to study, Willis Oh, despite having a Korean surname, he was the third generation of Korean folks who have been living in Edinburgh for decades. His grandfather, the first Mr. Oh, owned a well-known Korean food restaurant chain across the country and the business was now passed on by his uncle and father, the second generation of Mr. Oh.

His father married a beautiful lady that he met when he was in college, and she insisted to break the family tradition and named their firstborn with an English name, that was where Willis came from. He told Kyungsoo the history of his name when they first met because he was the fellow same-aged Korean boy, and they didn't have to talk formally. Sometimes when his mother was not around, his father or grandfather would call him Sehun, the Korean name that they have prepared for him, and talk to him in Korean. Although he got half-Korean blood, Willis could not speak the language well, when Kyungsoo once tried to talk with him. He only knew some basic sentences, thank you and hello but he pronounced it in a thick Scottish accent.

"The marching band recruitment?" Kyungsoo raised his eyebrows. "I've told you I'm not interested. I can't play the saxophone."

"Not the marching band, but the suicidal prevention program. It was recently posted this morning. You know… after our classmate's suicide though I shall not mention his name, our prestigious," he faked a cough, " _bloody_ expensive school finally realized that they should be aware of their students' mental health and they are going to put us in a group of two to make it easier to monitor our behaviour. You can find your partner's name on the message board. My teammate is Matteo Kim-Campbell. Isn't that lad the bank manager's son, your loud roommate?"

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, "Yes he is. And lucky you, he's half-Korean too."

"Really?" Willis widened his eyes. "I thought he was Chinese when we worked on the French Literature assignment in your room. What do I do with this information?" 

Kyungsoo shrugged, "Maybe start talking about learning hangul together to strengthen your Korean roots?"

Willis shoved the rest of his sandwich in his mouth then wiped his lips with the napkin. "I should go to meet my teammate and discuss this program."

"Where will you meet him?" Kyungsoo eyed his friend cautiously. 

"His classroom, of course! I looked at his schedule and he was supposed to be in Advanced Calculus after the lunch break. Should have caught him soon and discussed several things." Willis finished cleaning the crumbs of his sandwiches on their table effectively, polished it like how he usually dusts his family's restaurant when he worked part-time every school break. "You should find your partner too. The sooner, the better the room arrangements assigned. Bye Kyungsoo, see you later."

Willis took his tray with him and started to separate his trash on the righteous place before he left the cafeteria. Kyungsoo finished his lunch several bites later, before dragging his sluggish limbs to the message board near the common hall. There were several seniors and his fellow sophomore classmates lining near the board. He searched for his name, Kyungsoo Doh instead of Do Kyungsoo based on the international order of first and last name, and found that he was teamed with someone named Jongin Kim from the senior year. Kyungsoo scrunched his forehead. He did not know there was another familiar Korean surname beside the Oh and Kim-Campbell that he befriended, since he never heard of him before.

"Look what we got here," Kyungsoo turned his head to the sound, right amongst the senior students where one tall boy stuck out from the rest of his friends like a sore thumb.

He seemed to remember that voice, he just yet to recall where they were met. The taller man hovered behind him several feet away. The width of his shoulders itself could engulf Kyungsoo's entire body, but he somehow did not feel intimidated by the warm smile that he had upon his lips and his eyes that shone brightly under the autumn sunlight.

"Oh, I'm going to be partnered with a sophomore." He mumbled to himself. His eyes roamed around the board until he was met with Kyungsoo's curious one. "Are you Do Kyungsoo?"

If only Kyungsoo was a scrupulous person, he would have noticed that the senior referred to him as Do Kyungsoo instead of Kyungsoo Doh, but he was too busy to recall the honey baritone voice to realize that.

"I think we've met before…" Kyungsoo implied, not quite answering the question that the senior asked him. The taller boy's face lit up in recognition.

"Of course I remember you! You're the small-faced boy from room number 2112 dorm building D, am I correct?"

Yes, it was him, but Kyungsoo still could not remember who the senior was. His doubts were answered when one of his friends called him.

"Hey Kai, we're going to play football in the west field. Do you want to join us?"

"Later, mate." He did not avert his eyes from Kyungsoo while talking to his friends. "I'm still arranging things with my new partner."

Kyungsoo widened his eyes at the nickname. "You're Kai? That _stalker_ Kai?"

"There's no other Kai than me in this school." He smugly puffed his chest. "Hey, I'm not a stalker. I'm an investigator."

"You're Kevin dorm's intruder!" Kyungsoo's voice wavered in shock.

Kai or Jongin Kim chuckled. "No, but okay, at least you remember me now."

Kyungsoo eyed him meticulously now that he could see him clearly in a broad daylight. Kai or as his uniform badge said, Kim Jongin, is a Korean. He thought he was a native, since he had the perfect accent like most of Kyungsoo's classmates. He's so tall with dark brown hair, golden skin, and plump lips. He looked ethereally beautiful and Kyungsoo was mesmerized.

 _"You're a Korean with a perfect British accent."_ Kyungsoo casually slipped in Korean. He could not deny that he missed talking in his mother language since he has no one who would understand it here. Not even Willis or Matteo. "How could I not recognize you immediately?" Kai laughed heartily.

"Because, I believe that you might not be able to see my face back then?" That was a solid reason. "You wear spectacles too today. You did not put it on when we met, so that's very understandable. Oh, fun fact, I've been living here with my aunt since I was five, so I almost sounded like a _native_. But don't you ever think that you could just talk informally to someone older because we're currently living abroad. I won't let it slip."

"I'm sorry, _Senior_." Kyungsoo bowed towards Kai. "It was just… a slip of tongue." The elder patted Kyungsoo's head while grinning boyishly.

"I'm just kidding, Kyungsoo," he winked. "Talk to me comfortably. I guess I'll see you around soon."

***

Matteo was busy packing his belongings when Kyungsoo returned to his room on Friday night, a week later since the day the school committee announced the suicidal prevention program and also the new dorm arrangements. Kyungsoo eyed him tiredly while slumping at his own bed that was neatly made across the room.

"So, you're going to move to Willis's room soon? We still have like… a few days before the deadline." He was a little sad when the school committee decided to change their room order too, for he not only met with Jongin once a week for the session but would soon become his roommate as well. Not that he loathed the older boy's presence, but he looked like the kind of trouble that Kyungsoo would rather stay away from before he got involved too far.

"Sehun wants to get rid of his roommate soon," said Matteo cheerily. 

"Do you really hate me, _Jongdae_?" Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. "You called him Sehun. You two must have gotten closer in a week."

"No, Kyungsoo! First of all, Sehun's room is closer to the school cafeteria." Matteo grinned proudly. "And Sehun gets a lot of food delivered from his family every single week, and he willingly shares it with me since his previous roommate Theodore always tells him his kimchi stinks. He also judged him for snacking inside their dorm room and making a mess, so can you imagine how happy Sehun is when he got teamed with me?"

Kyungsoo kicked Matteo's bed frame harshly. "Hey, I shared my Korean snacks and side dishes with you too, you brat, if that's the main reason why you leave me sooner."

"Yeah, but your parents rarely send you anything since… a hundred years ago." Matteo pouted sadly. It actually was just a few weeks ago, after the results of the midterms came. Kyungsoo's father was disappointed with his exam's score that could not fulfill his parents' expectations, so they stopped spoiling him with food to motivate him to study harder. They even threatened Kyungsoo to not send him tickets home during school break. 

"Anyway, that senior that you're going to be paired with is hot. Like, super hot. And looked very, _very_ muscular by the delicious stretch of his varsity jacket. I would love to cling to his arms all night long if he allowed me to." Matteo sighed after putting the last stuffed dinosaur doll in his box. He really loved dinosaurs, and somehow his face resembled a grinning stegosaurus too in Kyungsoo's eyes. "Too bad, I only got to see a few glimpses of him. Maybe I could just leave some of my books and return here when he's already moved in? What do you think?" 

Kyungsoo groaned at Matteo's flirty note. He had been very open with his sexuality from the very first day they became roommates. He was a bi and seemed very proud of it, that was how he introduced himself to Kyungsoo. He once dated a senior when they were freshmen, but they broke up when the seniors graduated high school and got admitted to a college. Apparently keeping the long-distance relationship was hard for both of them, so they broke up.

"He's even more handsome than Kris, you know, my ex. I mean, how could I have never seen him before? I would have picked him over Kris from the very beginning." He moved to sit at Kyungsoo's bed since his bed was full of boxes. He elbowed his roommate's waist to give him enough space to stretch his sore back. The younger of the two rolled his eyes.

"I see that you've moved on from him quite fast. Anyway, he said he just transferred here last term," Kyungsoo mumbled. 

"He told you that?" Matteo raised his eyebrows curiously. "I thought you barely knew him?"

Kyungsoo shrugged, "No, he told our therapist. He went to a public school before, and one day his father came to his aunt's house and demanded her to give him the best education in the country because he would pay for his study."

Matteo hummed, "Yeah, only privileged kids could afford to study here. I mean, look at you, your father owned the five-star hotel chains in South Korea. I wonder what his father did."

"Kim Entertainment's chairman," Kyungsoo whispered. "You know, the company that managed that _famous_ K-pop idol who had just finished their Europe concert tour."

Matteo's eyes almost popped out, "EXO? His father owned the company who managed EXO?"

"And his oldest brother, Kim Junmyeon, from his father's first wife is currently the CEO."

"His brother from… what?" Matteo's jaw dropped. "Wow, that sounds complicated as fuck. Are you even allowed to know this… big scandal?" Matteo shook Kyungsoo's shoulder vigorously until his head dizzy. "No wonder his family has to hide him here, away from the paparazzi, where he could live a normal life."

"If you think being addicted to detective stories is considered normal, then yeah, he lives pretty normal."

Matteo nodded his head, "It's normal."

"Anyway, he wouldn't tell our therapist if that matter is classified. Yeah, you might be right. People would barely recognize him here, where his father or brother might be all over the newspapers and television programs in South Korea. After all, she must have read our family background before, since it was all written in our school database. So it was just a _mere_ confirmation."

"Oh. Yeah, you're right." Matteo scratched his head while grinning. "I kind of forgot those little details. Anyway let me stay in your bed for a while, I'm a bit tired." 

"Have you finished packing?" Kyungsoo asked the older boy by several months who was currently hogging his bed. "Let's have dinner, I'm famished."

He went to his cupboard to change out of his school uniform into more comfortable clothes and sorted out his homework from his backpack to his desk and prepared for tomorrow's schedule. When he turned to his roommate, Matteo was already snoring lightly. Kyungsoo decided to go to the dining hall by himself and he may bring back some food for his roommate to eat when he woke up since dinner time would end in less than an hour. 

Kyungsoo fiddled with his phone as he walked alone in the near-empty hallway. He got several new messages from his older brother who had just landed in London for a business trip and some childhood friends that he still kept in contact with. Seungsoo asked to meet him through the weekend and he would send a driver to pick him tomorrow morning. Kyungsoo stopped right away when he noticed something was amiss. The door to Kevin's room was slightly open to allow a slit of dimmed light to emanate from the outside, and he saw shadows lurking behind.

His entire body trembled hard, it gave him a slight déjà vu sensation eerily similar to when he found Kevin's cold body. He should have run and told the dorm caretaker, but he couldn't move far. Instead, he took a peek inside the room with trembling hands and irregular breathing, and saw Kai. It must be him again. Everything clicked in Kyungsoo's mind like a perfect piece of a puzzle. _That was probably why he would willingly move to Kyungsoo's dorm instead of making Kyungsoo move to his old room._ Kyungsoo's entire body went feverish hot when a wave of anger crashed and washed away his fear. He slowly pushed the door open to the sight of Kai crawling under Kevin's bed. One thing that he learned now that he had met him several times, he could recognize him from afar even in the dark.

"Please close the door behind you, when you're getting in." The elder boy grunted when his head hit something. 

"You’re… what?"

" _Close the door_ , Kyungsoo." He repeated the instruction in Korean. Kyungsoo had no other choice but to go in and close the door behind his back. It's dark inside and the only lighting was from the street lamps outside the window. 

"What are you doing, and how did you know that it was me? Did you expect me to be here?" Kyungsoo half-whispered while slowly sliding to his knees, back pressed close against the door. He felt slightly nauseated, this room still traumatized him, and how he wished he had not gotten himself involved with whatever trouble Kai was going to commit.

"I saw a glimpse of your high ankle old skool vans, it has a little brownish dirt on its tip and apparently you haven't noticed it yet since the day we met in front of the common hall, because it's still there.” Kai crawled back until his head popped out from under the bed frame. "It’s not a big deal. A true detective should notice every small detail that they saw.”

"You even remembered _my shoes_ when you do not even remember to close the door?" 

“That’s not the point, Kyungsoo. I leave the door open on purpose just in case you want to come in.” Jongin sighed. “And there you are. You seemed curious too with this case, so I’m inviting you to be the first member of my Sherlock club."

The first… what? Kyungsoo shook his head. He should have known that nobody would want to join this ridiculous club that Jongin led. His hand fisted on his sides. "Listen, I don't want to join anything—"

"You might not believe what I've found." He grinned widely like a mad scientist who had just invented an illegitimate device while dusting a speck of invisible dirt in front of his shirt. "A trace of a murderer. Come, and take a look at it."

Kyungsoo's jaw went slack. 


End file.
